Rachel Carroll Rivas, interim director of SPLC’s Intelligence Project, left, and Scott McCoy, deputy legal director for SPLC’s Inclusion & Anti-Extremism Litigation Team
The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics this week changed its policies to ban transgender women athletes from competing in women’s sports, prompting outrage from LGBTQ advocates, including the Southern Poverty Law Center, officials of which noted that the move came “following a years-long campaign by far-right extremists and hate groups targeting transgender people.”
In a written statement condemning the move, SPLC officials called on NCAA to “uphold an inclusive policy that allows all players to be able to fully participate.”
Rachel Carroll Rivas, interim director of SPLC’s Intelligence Project, said, “NAIA has historically understood the importance of access to competitive sports but has now codified discriminating against and harming trans people as organizational goals.”
Scott McCoy, deputy legal director for SPLC’s Inclusion & Anti-Extremism Litigation Team, added, “The SPLC encourages associations, businesses and public entities not to be intimidated by the transphobic pressure campaign exerted by anti-LGBTQ+ hate groups.
“School-based sports programs encourage teamwork, discipline, self-esteem and healthy lifestyles — attributes all students need to become successful adults and productive members of society,” McCoy continued. “We call on the NAIA to reconsider and reverse this unnecessarily cruel attack on transgender students who just want to live and compete as their authentic selves.”
The SPLC has previously identified a network of more than 60 groups that “generate anti-LGBTQ pseudoscience and share misinformation about LGBTQ+ people,” the SPLC statement noted. “Anti-LGBTQ+ hate groups falsely claim that transgender athletes, including student athletes, represent a threat to cisgender women and girls. They are attempting to demonize transgender people by creating a wedge between the LGBTQ+ community and their civil rights allies.”
Carroll Rivas concluded, “Hate groups have been disingenuous in their claims of support for women’s rights. Instead, these groups use sports bans that aim to divide our civil rights coalitions. They won’t win. We see hope in the leadership of some of the most successful coaches and organizations, such as Dawn Staley and the USWNT Players Association, who are elevating their game and bringing in record crowds while supporting the LGBTQ+ community.”
— Tammye Nash
